


the thing with feathers

by swatkat



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Swan-Mills Family, shameless fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-22
Updated: 2014-10-22
Packaged: 2018-02-22 04:58:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2495294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swatkat/pseuds/swatkat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Henry's family is weird. But they're also all right.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the thing with feathers

**Author's Note:**

> Shameless fluff written in one sitting after unexpected feelings over these idiots. Set at some indeterminate point after 4.01, has nothing to do with Frozen.
> 
> Alternate title was 'The Charmings won't leave Regina alone'.

"Hey Mom, you in there?"

Henry knows for a fact she's in there, it's not like she's been going out much. Or at all. He's just being polite. Two more minutes and he's climbing up to his room, pretty sure he's still got the tree-climbing skills from Neverland. New York didn't exactly offer much in the way of tree climbing, but he's got this.

It probably won't be necessary. She's gonna let him in. She _promised_. His mom's just been… moody lately, hugging him one minute and staring off into space the next. Henry worries sometimes, that's all.

And besides, between her moods and Emma's weird I'm-the-world's-worst-Savior meltdowns (which is stupid, because she's amazing), not to mention Gram and Gramps running around sleepless and ragged thanks to the baby's endless bawling, he's pretty much the only sane person in the family these days. 

He's got this.

"Mom, you gonna open the door?" Henry yells, although it's barely been a minute. "It's cold out here!" He throws in a fake sneeze for good measure, which soon sets off a series of unpleasant actual sneezes and okay, that was a bad idea. It's only about three in the afternoon and the sun's still up, but it _has_ been getting colder lately, and he's only wearing a sweatshirt.

"Henry Mills!" 

Mom's wearing her apron, and there's flour on her cheek. She's scowling and telling him something about appropriate clothing, and he doesn't even mind that his eyes are watering and his nose is a little runny (that was a _really_ bad idea). 

The house smells nicer than any New York bakery.

  

* 

 

"These are amazing," he says, mouth full of still-warm peanut butter cookies. Or well, he _tries_ to say that, but what really comes out is a mumbled "deesh are amashing", which earns him another scowl and a mini-lecture about talking with his mouth full. 

That's okay. He's missed this.

He can't imagine ever wanting to stay away. 

"I bet you could make a fortune out of these in New York," he tells her, and _that_ gets him a smile. Good. She needs to smile more.

"You think so?"

"Yeah," Henry nods vigorously. "Have you ever been to New York?" 

He thinks she must have been, what with the memories and the perfect little apartment that she gave them. So it's a little surprising when she says, "No. I didn't really explore much of this world when we first came here." 

"Never?"

"Never," she says with a sad little smile that makes his chest ache all of a sudden. "Do you… miss it?" She's not looking at him now, her eyes fixed upon the ring on her finger that she turns over and over again.

"Not much," he shrugs. "It was fun, but I missed everybody." Her most of all, even if he didn't know it then. "I just didn't remember that I did." 

It doesn't make sense when he says it out loud, but she's smiling at him again and he knows she understands.

"You gotta visit," he tells her. "I can take you there! We still have the apartment, right?"

He's getting excited just thinking about it, showing Mom around and buying her hot dogs. She'd complain about the grease and love it all the same. He'd take her to museums and they could walk around Central Park, she'd love that. And Emma would—

Maybe not Emma, not right now anyway. 

Maybe someday. 

He thinks Emma had even more fun in New York than he did.

 

* 

 

Henry's about to request pizza for dinner—he _thinks_ he'll get away with it—when the doorbell rings, and his mom says, "Don't get that." 

It's probably Emma, he thinks, and stays put in the kitchen.

So he's a little surprised when his grandmother saunters in a few minutes later, the baby—thankfully asleep—in his stroller and her smile wide and bright. "Hey, Henry. Regina. Do I smell cookies?"

Actually, he's gaping, because did she just _pick the lock_ and _walk_ right into his mom's house, like they haven't been mortal enemies since time immemorial? 

His mom's glaring, but it's less of a death glare and more a 'you're an annoying pest' glare. Wow.

"Which part of _you're not welcome_ _here_ do you not understand, Snow?" she says, and sure, it's frosty as hell, but she doesn't look like she's about to try and kill Grams anytime soon.

"Oh, you know, gotta keep practicing," Grams says, and wait, did she just wink at Henry? It's a terrible wink, because she ends up shutting _both_ her eyes. "You never know when those lock-picking skills come handy."

"I'm glad to know you're being such an excellent role model for my son," his mom says, but she's just rolling her eyes. It's _weird_. "You're paying for that lock."

"You'll just fix it with magic," Grams says, unconcerned. Just how long has this been going on?

"The price of magic, dear," Mom says, but she's reaching out and tickling Neal under his chin, like he's a kitten or something. It's super cute.

And then Grams is reaching for the cookies and all Mom says is, "They're poisoned," but it's like she's kidding and not particularly interested in throwing Grams out of the house or anything.

"You have to teach me how to bake like this sometime," Grams says, planting herself on a chair next to Henry.

"In your dreams, Snow White," his mom says.

  

*

 

Of course, Neal—which is still a weird name for his baby uncle, but he's getting used to it—starts screeching about two minutes later, and Grams goes nuts trying to shut him up, at which point his mom says "Oh for heaven's sake" and snatches the baby out of Grams' hands. She presses him close and rubs her hand in circles on his back, in the way she sometimes did when Henry had a nightmare and had trouble sleeping.

It's kind of like magic, the way she gets him to calm down, just like that. Neal is like, the world's angriest baby.  

Or maybe it isn't magic, because he remembers climbing next to her in her bed and sleeping through thunderstorms. And he's sure he wasn't as fussy a kid as Neal is.

Grams just eats more cookies.

  

*

So Henry isn't shocked anymore when there's _another_ knock on the front door and Grams very calmly says, "That must be David," now nibbling on her fourth cookie.

"Go get the door, Henry," Mom says with a long-suffering sigh. She looks utterly disgusted, but she's also not given Neal back to Grams.

"Hey champ," David says when Henry opens the door. "Snow said she'd be here. Do I smell cookies?"

 Henry sighs.

 

*

 

By the time David's on _his_ fourth cookie (with a glass of milk he poured himself), his mom is discussing baby food with his grandparents and Henry has given _up_. On pizza dinner, on life, on _everything_ , because his entire family is weird and _boring_.

He hopes Neal won't grow up to be this boring. He was counting on having a sidekick of his own one of these days.

Great, and now Mom's telling them about _his_ eating habits as a baby. A lot of it sounds like exaggeration, and he's definitely _not_ going to sit here and listen to embarrassing stories about himself.

She's telling them about the duckies—which was supposed to be a secret!—when his phone buzzes, and he's kind of relieved to see that it's from Emma, who might be the only non-boring grown up in his family right now.

 _U at home?_ says the text.

 _Yeah. W my mom_ , he replies. _Whr r u?_

 _Come outside_ , Emma says, and it's odd enough that Henry's back to being worried again. Only this time about his other mom.

 He's got this, he has, but looking after both of them, as he's beginning to find out, can be real hard sometimes.

  

*

 

Emma's shifty when he slips outside, like she's been caught doing something she shouldn't have been doing.

"What's up?" Henry says. "You okay?"

"What?" Emma says, looking even shiftier. "I'm _fine_. Everything's _great_." Henry may not have inherited her superpower, but he sure as heck can tell when she's not telling him the whole truth.

"Did something happen?" he says, looking closely at the way she fiddles with the Sherrif's badge on her belt. He learned a lot about her when it was just the two of them in New York, and he can tell when she's worked up about something.

She's always worked up about something nowadays.

"Can't I want to see my kid without something happening?" she grins, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. "Christ, you're getting big!" she says, and Henry grins right back.

"I'm gonna be as tall as Gramps," he says, smug. "Way taller than you."

"No way," she says, but she's smiling now, relaxed and _Emma_ again. "I'm gonna feed you those magic mushrooms that make you tiny and pint-sized. And then I'll carry you around in my pocket. Tiny Henry." She bops him on the nose. "I bet Gold has some in stock."

"If that's your way of introducing my son to drugs, Miss Swan, I'm going to have to put my foot down," says a voice from behind them. His mom's voice, and she sounds _pissed_.

Right. She's still mad at Emma. Oh boy.

"Hey, Regina," Emma says, awkward and fumbling again. Her smile's disappeared, and she looks pale and anxious. "I, uh, was patrolling and saw David's truck outside—"

"And you thought, what, I was about to murder your parents in my son's presence?"

"No! I just—I wanted to see Henry," Emma says, shoulders hunched, hands stuffed inside her pockets. "Yeah. He's my son too."

Not this again.

He feels bad for Emma, he does, because she didn't really mean to hurt his mom this time. She's just bad at this stuff.

He bets _he_ would have done better if he'd travelled back in time with her instead of Captain Hook. He's seen _Back to the Future_ and knows you're not supposed to mess with the past.

And Mom's just being mean again, because she's been sad and on her own before he decided enough was enough (as did his grandparents, apparently, but he'll figure that part out later).

"Given your recent exploits, I'm beginning to have serious doubts about your ability to care for my son," his mom says, stepping a little closer until she and Emma are almost nose to nose.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Emma's spitting mad now, and okay, _enough_.

"Guys!" Henry says, and they both turn to look at him, a little shamefaced. Like they forgot he was standing _right there_. Seriously. "What did I say about fighting?" he says sternly, crossing his arms. It's actually kind of fun.

He thinks it'll be way more fun when he really is as tall as Gramps. His moms are kinda short.

"I'm sorry, Henry dear," his mom says. "I didn't mean to lose my temper."

"Yeah, me too," Emma says. She's deflated again. In fact, she looks defeated. "I'll just… go. Sorry."

Which doesn't sound good at all, because how's he supposed to go back in there and smile and chat with everyone else when Emma's sad and by herself?  

She's not good at saying these things, but he knows, he _knows_ she hates being alone when she's feeling like this. That's why she came to see him.

"No," Henry says, and both his moms look taken aback. "Mom baked cookies. You want some?"

He _hopes_ Snow and David didn't finish all of them.

"I don't think that's a good idea—" Emma begins to say, only to be interrupted by his mom who says, "It's certainly better than skulking about my yard. _Again_."

"Really?" Emma says, like she can't believe her own ears. "You'll let me in?"

Mom really has been mad at her. It makes Emma all sad and mopey, and then she follows her around like a puppy.

"It's cold out here," Mom says with a sniff. "Henry was sneezing this afternoon."

"And besides," she says, when Emma opens her mouth to say something that is quite likely something terrible and/or corny, "your idiot parents have already made themselves at home. What's one more idiot?" She shrugs.

  

*

  

"Can we have pizza for dinner?" he says cautiously while Emma takes off her boots in the foyer. It's worth a shot, at least.

"Why not, kid," Emma says.

"Absolutely not!" says his mom.

And maybe they aren't headed to New York on a family trip anytime soon, but it's a start.

  

***


End file.
